Is the NYT Lying About the Milken-Giuliani Relationship?

Rudy Giuliani 

At the post, This is Why You Need to Just Cut Taxes Across the Board, Instead of Setting Up..., a commenter writes:

Wow, what a tangled web this appears to be. I agree with RW, the best policy is always tax cuts across the board. However, it is interesting to note that Giuliani prosecuted Milken, put him in jail and fined him $600 million for the non-crime of insider trading. Actually I think the crime was a technical violation of "money parking" rules. Milken's junk bond business arguably helped to liberate crony assets by funding more entrepreneurial investor/managers and put them to more productive use. The conviction of Milken was pure politics by crony businessmen hurt by Milkens success (see the book Payback by Daniel Fischel). The idea that Giuliani would lobby for a policy to benefit Milken seems bizarre. The fact that it is the NYT reporting this leaves me doubtful of its veracity. The NYT seems more likely to publish anything no matter the facts if it casts a shadow on Trump. No honor among thieves.

 NYT is not lying.

You need to understand the backstory.

Milken was diagnosed with prostate cancer. After that happened, he poured tens of millions into prostate cancer research. In fact, he formed his own research institute, The Prostate Cancer Foundation. Then Giuliani was diagnosed with prostate cancer and Milken opened his research institute up to Giuliani. G owes M big time.

From The Wall Street Journal, December 26, 2000:

It is not a scene it would have been easy to envision even a few years back -- Rudolph Giuliani, the mayor of New York, and Michael Milken, former financier, discussing diet, exercise and other health regimens over lunch at the mayor's table. Mr. Milken, recall, had had a spectacularly successful career till 1986, when he was charged with securities trading violations and dispatched to prison for two years. Mr. Giuliani was the federal prosecutor who put him there. Now, in the season of hope and joy, there are some who think that it's time for a presidential pardon for Mr. Milken, Mr. Giuliani among them...

[I]t was not until[Giuliani] had been diagnosed, last April, that the two actually talked at all. Mr. Milken called him. In the 2 1/2 hours Mr. Milken spent lunching with his former prosecutor, he dispensed advice and information, and instructed Mr. Giuliani in stress reduction and nutrition and other matters having to do with the effort to cure cancer.

-RW